1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical examination system that manages the order of patients waiting for a medical examination so as to minimize the time that is required from the start to the end of the medical examination of the patients in an on-site medical examination.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In a conventional medical examination system, the system controls the order of patients waiting for a medical examination. Systems or algorithms which control waiting lines, under the presupposition that patients have already arrived at a fixed institution for a medical examination have been proposed. In these systems or algorithms, the order is set so as to optimize the order of later arriving patients waiting in line (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 08-194853) or the order is indicated (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 11-205337). These medical examination systems have configurations that cannot, as a whole, be physically moved.
Accordingly, as in the case where the patients are presupposed to receive a medical examination during working hours in a working office or during farm work, an appointment that makes the amount of time of work interruption the shortest cannot be achieved by minimizing the time from the start to the end of the medical examination that is required for individual patients, even if the starting time of the examination is delayed. In addition, in an on-site medical examination the portability of the entire system is required places, layouts and the order for the medical examination cannot be set because of installment conditions in working offices or local public offices where the medical examination is held. Accordingly, guidance for the order and places of medical examination that is required based on appointment conditions cannot be given to individual patients at the site of the medical examination.
Therefore, in conventional on-site medical examinations, these conventional systems for controlling waiting time have not been utilized because an appointment cannot be made for the shortest medical examination time by grasping the medical examination condition during working hours and also there is no portability nor is there guidance given to individual patients at the site. In most on-site medical examinations, an orientation paper including the time precisely arranged schedule according to an individual patient is not delivered in advance. No proper guidance is given at the site concerning the medical examination items or the examination site. Therefore, in many cases, considering the time needed for the actual medical examination, patients waste much time waiting after having arrived at the examination site and, in addition, waste time at a hastily arranged site by being confused concerning the order of the medical examination.